


Car Journeys

by emetoandotherthings



Category: Original Work
Genre: Emetophilia, Food Poisoning, Friendship, Gen, Vomiting, car journeys, car sickness, emeto, puking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 17:29:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20764196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emetoandotherthings/pseuds/emetoandotherthings
Summary: Prompt: Road trip where a character gets food poisoning while they still have a way to go (Bonus points if someone else in the car is queasy from car sickness anyway and ends up sympathy puking)Warning: Includes vomiting





	Car Journeys

The view across Glen Coe was breath taking. The sun was breaking through the clouds and shining down through the valley. Eppie was struggling to appreciate the beauty of it all though as she tried to focus her eyes on the horizon, feeling overly warm and qualmish in the back seat of the car. 

It had been Alba’s birthday on Wednesday and unbeknownst to her, Leyton and the rest of the gang had planned a booked a cabin for the weekend further up the west coast of Scotland. Leyton had already tasked Jude to do a bonfire for them on one of the evenings, Eden was in charge of food and baking, and Eppie had been primed to drive and was more than happy to do so. That was until Alba’s parents appeared up from London to celebrate her birthday, bringing with them her present: a car.

So when Alba discovered about their planned trip for the weekend she was adamant that she wanted to drive, christen her new car so to speak. Eppie could hardly argue with that, and when she pulled the front seat for the trip up she didn’t think it was worth mentioning that she used to get motion sick. But on the trip back she was stuck in the back seat with Eden and Jude, who was sandwiched in the middle as he was the smallest. Eppie had rolled down the window by a fraction of an inch to let some fresh air in, but she was trying to avoid letting the rest of them know that she wasn’t feeling great. Leyton was in the car and she knew how much he freaked out when someone was sick. 

They’d stopped at the viewpoint halfway along the road, called the rest and be thankful, to have lunch. Eppie couldn’t have been more thankful to get away from the twists and turns of the road with the sheer cliff drop to one side of the road. She’d sat at one of the picnic tables, picking at the carton of chips they’d bought her from the fast food van even though she said she wasn’t hungry. The rest of them were wolfing into burgers and hot dogs that were the other delicacies the van was offering; the sight of them tucking in so enthusiastically was making her stomach burble in an unsettled manner.

Eppie had only eaten about three chips when she felt like she couldn’t put anything else in her mouth, especially with the knowledge that she was going to have to get back in the car and go along the rest of the twisty, winding road till they reached the motorway. She avoided watching the rest of them eat by excusing herself from the table and wandering over to the edge of the grassy verge which fenced off the drop of the cliff, and she pretended to take pictures of the spectacular view. Really she was just taking deep breaths of fresh air and wishing that her stomach would go back to normal before she had to get back in the car. 

“Eppie!” Alba’s voice came floating across the wind and she turned round to see them all heading back to the car. “We’ve got to get going.”

So she reluctantly trudged back to the car and climbed in again. Bending down to rummage in her handbag, she checked the Ziploc bags she had packed in there, just in case. As she felt the car beginning to move off back onto the windy road, she checked that her window was open enough for a little bit of air. She’d decided that to focus her mind on something else she’d count the number of little waterfalls she could see cascading down the side of the cliffs. Her eyes were raking the cliff edges in search of waterfall number twenty when Eden’s voice rang out from along the back seat:

“Alba, pull over!” His voice was so sharp that both Eppie and Jude turned to look at him. One of Eden’s hands was pressing into his stomach; his face had lost all colour and he was swallowing rapidly. 

“There’s a passing bay there,” Jude had snapped into action, pointing to the small inlet that wasn’t really designed for people to stop in, but that didn’t matter as Jude realised that his best mate was about to puke. “Pull in.” Eppie heard the clicking of Eden’s belt being unbuckled even before Alba had brought the car to a stop, and her own stomach flipped over as Eden covered his mouth with his hand, signalling an impending regurgitation. 

“Oh god…” Leyton’s voice was trembling as Jude was practically forcing Eden from the car with all of his strength. The car door slammed shut as Eden took a few steps away from the car and then doubled over; Eppie grimaced as before she could look away Eden had convulsed and heaved a huge amount of vomit onto the ground. Inside the car Eppie could hear Leyton’s breathing becoming erratic as he started panicking about what was happening mere feet away.

“Leyton, I want you to put your headphones in and turn your music right up,” Alba patted Leyton’s knee gently as she instructed him. “Come on, do it now.” Eppie heard the zip of a bag opening and Leyton appeared to be raking to find his ipod; Eppie could see his hands trembling as he pushed the headphones into his ears and rested his head back as the music blocked out all other sound. “Hopefully he’ll fall asleep and miss this…”

With another glance out of the window the two girls saw Jude rubbing Eden’s back as he was bent double, hands braced on his knees as he retched continually, Eppie closed her own eyes as her already unsettled stomach was churning faster in reaction to seeing Eden throwing up.

After a few minutes the car door opened again, Eppie opened her eyes to see Jude, looking agitated:

“I’m going to give him some water,” he murmured, grabbing the bottle from his bag.

“What’s going on?” Alba asked quickly. “I can make Leyton sit in the back if that’d help?” She offered, but Jude shook his head.

“He thinks it was that burger he ate when we stopped,” Jude said. “He said something about it tasting odd, and not settling right. I think it might be food poisoning…” That was the worst possible thing that they could have heard Jude said. 

“What are we going to do?” Alba sounded worried. “We can’t stop, we need to get back!” 

“I know…” Jude sighed. “Just give me a bit of time, I’m going to try and get some water into him. If it comes to the worst, he might just have to sit with the bucket I brought the kindling in on his knee…” Jude looked apologetically towards Leyton, whose music could just be heard from his headphones. “Sorry, I know how anxious this makes Leyton…”

“There’s not really much we can do, is there?” Alba shook her head. “It’s not Eden’s fault.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Jude closed the door again and the two of them watched as he tried to make Eden drink some of the water, even as Eden shook his head. It very quickly became apparent that Eden wasn’t about to get rapidly better. No sooner than Jude had coaxed him into drinking than he was puking it back up again. 

When they’d been stopped in the passing bay for over twenty minutes Jude strode back to the car, indicating for Alba to open the boot. She did so and they could hear Jude searching through the contents, until eventually he found the bucket he’d brought all the fire lighting stuff in. He emptied it out and then carefully led Eden back to the car; he slid in first:

“Sorry Alba, I’m not seeing any other solution,” he apologised as Eden climbed shakily into the car and pulled the door closed. Eden leant his head back against the rest; his face pure white and covered in sweat. 

“I’m so sorry…” Eden’s voice was weak and trembling as he accepted the bucket being placed into his lap. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Alba reassured, she was rolling down her window to about halfway to let some air in. “I’ll try and drive as smoothly as I can.” That wouldn’t be easy on this road, and Eppie could feel a heat rising up the back of her neck as she looked at Eden, so she turned away – searching for waterfalls as the car began to move again. 

It was difficult, however, to block out the sound of heavy breathing coming from two seats away, or the gurgling issuing from Eden’s stomach. Occasionally Eden would whimper a little and move his head towards the bucket, but so far it had all been a false alarm. 

“_BuuuuuUuuuUURP!_” The belch reverberated into the plastic bucket and suddenly Eden was gagging again. Instantly Eppie’s stomach was catapulted into her throat and she surreptitiously put her hand up to in front of her mouth.  
With each unproductive heave, sounding more and more painful, Eppie’s own stomach squeezed whether because of her own motion sickness or in sympathy with Eden. 

Jude was murmuring soothingly to Eden, rubbing his back awkwardly as a sudden splash of liquid hitting the bucket made Eppie heave. She shook a shaky breath in – she was going to be fine, she just had to keep breathing. But as Eden gave another noisy retch, she couldn’t prevent her chest hitching as another heave worked its way up her throat. With the third heave that she suppressed she felt a splash of sick at the back of her mouth; she swallowed, but had already leant forward and pulled one of the Ziploc bags out of her handbag. 

She opened it with trembling fingers and held it up to her mouth, trying to take deep breaths through her nose. Eden had given another noisy retch, struggling to bring up anything left inside him, and that was the end for Eppie. Her eyes automatically forced shut and the weight of the bag she was holding instantly changed as with a ‘_hhggguuuuuuuuu_’ a rush of sick had poured from her mouth into it.

“Oh Jesus Christ! Eppie!” The sound of her puke filling the bag had drawn Jude’s attention away from Eden. She was panting heavily as she took her mouth away for a moment. 

“Sorry, I-” She was cut off as a burp bubbled from deep in the pit of her stomach and was followed by another rush of vomit. The bag that she was using was getting heavy, but she didn’t want to open her eyes, as she was pretty sure the sight would be even more nauseating. 

“Oh bloody hell! Have we all been poisoned?” Alba called from the front. 

“No,” Eppie wheezed slightly. “Sorry…” She apologised again, “I get – _ulp_ – car sick… Been feeling ill the whole way down.” 

“Would you like some water?” Jude asked her, he was now stuck in the middle of two puking individuals and all he could do was comfort and try to prevent disaster.

“Could you get another bag out?” She hiccupped slightly, pretty sure that she wasn’t done now she’d started. Eden’s retching had died off so now that wasn’t influencing Eppie’s stomach anymore. “They’re in my hand bag.” She heard rustling and a new bag being produced.

“I’ll swap you.” She felt the heaviness of the used bag being removed from her hands. A fresh bag was pressed into her hands and she was glad of it, as the sound of the full bag being disposed into the bucket Eden was using sent another rush of liquid up her throat and she only just got it over her mouth in time. 

Her stomach began to ache as she heaved again and again, her muscles contracting and yet another wave of sick left her. She could hear Eden’s renewed gagging, his body must also be reacting to her sickness.

“Oh god, oh god…” Eppie panted once that wave had passed. “I’m so sorry.” Now Jude’s hand was on her shoulder, squeezing tightly.

“Don’t worry.” He was saying, talking simultaneously to her and Eden. “How are you feeling? Would you like some water?” He squeezed Eppie’s shoulder as he said this to indicate that he was talking to her. 

“I just want to get back home,” she whispered, feeling all weary and weak.

“We’re not far away from the motorway,” Alba’s voice was loud and confident. 

“Hear that – it’ll be better when we’re on a long straight road,” Jude assured. “Why don’t you have a sip of water then rest back and try to nap?” He suggested, and she felt his hand touching hers where she was gripping the second semi full bag. “Here, let me take that.” He managed to prize the bag from her. “You have this.”

She felt the bottle being placed into her hand and she raised it to her lips. The liquid was cold and wet, but refreshing as she washed away the bitter taste of sick from her mouth. She never opened her eyes once, even as Jude removed the water bottle and she rested her head back, taking long slow breaths as her stomach felt a little more settled now it was completely empty. Then Eppie heard Jude’s voice again, this time addressing Eden:

“Now it’s your turn Ede,” he said gently. “Take a drink and then rest.”

Even though she’d lost the battle against her motion sickness, that hadn’t actually been anywhere near as dreadful as she thought it might be. Next time she was going to insist on being the driver again… 


End file.
